Scientists Reconstruct Most of Woolly Mammoth Genome

An international team of scientists has reconstructed more than three-quarters of the genome of the woolly mammoth using DNA extracted from balls of hair, the first time this has been accomplished for an extinct species. The project provides some of the starting material that would be required to bring back to life the species of giant, hairy, cold-weather animals. That task, however, is too difficult to be accomplished soon -- and may turn out to be impossible. The research immediately offers insight into the history of elephants, however. It may illuminate the evolutionary adaptations that did -- and did not -- occur in mammoths as habitat and climate changed eons ago. It also suggests that samples of fur, including many in museum collections, may be more useful than previously recognized in studying extinct species.